Great Britain -- History -- Elizabeth, 1558-1603 -- Fiction
Sir Nicholas was greatly moved. There was one of the perplexities which
so much harassed all the Papists at this time. It seemed certain that Mr.
Stewart's prediction must be fulfilled. Dr. Storey was a naturalised
subject of King Philip and in the employment of Alva, and he had been
carried off forcibly by the English Government. It afterwards came out
how it had been done. He had been lured away from Antwerp and enticed on
board a trader at Bergen-op-Zoom, by Cecil's agents with the help of a
traitor named Parker, on pretext of finding heretical books there
arriving from England; and as soon as he had set foot on deck he was
hurried below and carried straight off to Yarmouth. Here then was Sir
Nicholas' perplexity. To welcome Spain when she intervened and to work
actively for her, was treason against his country; to act against Spain
was to delay the re-establishment of the Religion--something that
appeared to him very like treason against his faith. Was the dreadful
choice between his sovereign and his God, he wondered as he paced up and
down and questioned Mr. Stewart, even now imminent?
The whole affair, too, was so formidable and so mysterious that the
hearts of these Catholics and of others in England when they heard the
tale began to fail them. Had the Government then so long an arm and so
keen an eye? And if it was able to hale a man from the shadow of the
Cathedral at Antwerp and the protection of the Duke of Alva into the
hands of pursuivants at Yarmouth within the space of a few hours, who
then was safe?
And so the two sat late that night in the East Chamber; and laid schemes
and discussed movements and probabilities and the like, until the dawn
began to glimmer through the cracks of the shutters and the birds to
chirp in the eaves; and Sir Nicholas at last carried to bed with him an
anxious and a heavy heart. Mr. Stewart, however, did not seem so greatly
disturbed; possibly because on the one side he had not others dearer to
him than his own life involved in these complex issues: and partly
because he at any rate has not the weight of suspense and indecision that
so drew his host two ways at once, for Mr. Stewart was whole-heartedly
committed already, and knew well how he would act should the choice
present itself between Elizabeth and Philip.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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